Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 553 means that rather than co-ordinated area plans happening within one year of a development plan being passed, there will be a five-year window. That is a significant change in timeframes. I appreciate that there are resource and capacity issues involved but five years, potentially, for a co-ordinated area plan is a long period after a development plan is passed. It is half a decade before an area might have a co-ordinated area plan. Will the Minister of State outline his thoughts on that? Going from one year to five years is going from quite a tight period to a very extended one. Will the Minister of State explain the rationale behind this? He mentioned capacity, but will he explain the rationale for the full five years and whether a shorter period was considered? Why is it not proposed to extend it to two or three years? This is just for co-ordinated area plans. What are the timeframes for other priority area plans? Are they within a year or is the timeframe specified too?